


Firelight

by thesearchforbluejello



Series: Rogue Oneshots [7]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, Rebelcaptain Week, there's no party like a rebel party, this is surprisingly fluffy, warning: gratuitous use of imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 07:05:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15334509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesearchforbluejello/pseuds/thesearchforbluejello
Summary: When the smoke clears, Cassian and Jyn find each other again.





	Firelight

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe this is the last one (late though it may be). The final prompt was "together," and this is somewhat dependent on the previous not-oneshot, "Sound and Silence." This is unbeta'ed, and probably shoddily proofread, considering how many typos I've found in the other pieces.

The village is absolutely wild with sound. 

Cassian feels like he's suffocating in it, pulled under by a tidal wave of music and shouts and laughter and _noise _. The kyber crystal is hot against his skin, a constant beneath the undulating, uproarious din of the rebel celebration.__

____

____

He'd barely noticed it was there most days since Jyn left, since his life had stop-started like a suffering heart back into what it had been before her. It was for the best, he'd thought, to be able to throw himself into the war again without a constant reminder that he had something to lose. He only felt the warmth sometimes, when he wanted to let the war chew him up without caring if it spit him back out. It made him believe that she was still alive even when his own sense of rationality whispered dark things in the night.

It's night now, as he wanders along the edges of the celebration, under a sky violent with stars obscured with the light and smoke of bonfires.

He can see faces in the firelight, orange-hued and giddy, telling hyperbolized stories of the victory that they won't remember when dawn finds them sober.

A voice that Cassian knows surges from the crowd. "Cassian!" Kes exclaims, pitching to the side with only Shara's tight grip keeping him from pasting himself accidentally against the ground. "You're alive! You lived! You're... alive!"

"Kes," he says in surprise. He grabs Kes's arm, forcing the other man to look at him. "Where's Jyn? Is she--"

"She's okay. She's.. mm," he says, looking around, "somewhere. Dunno. She's here somewhere." A pressure that's been constricting his chest lessens and he takes a deep breath. She's alive. She's alive and she's here, lost in the crowd. He's been all but sure of it, but Kes's confirmation brings hope blooming in his chest again. It's been hours since he was able to check on the rest of his scattered team, to make sure they were alright, but no one had heard from Jyn. Kes is the only member of the Pathfinders Cassian has had the luck to stumble across so far, but he counts that as fortunate given the sheer number of rebels around them.

"I'm sure she's looking for you," Shara says.

Cassian smiles. "I'm glad to see you're both alright."

Shara rolls her eyes. "He won't be alright unless I get some more booze. I'm not drunk enough to handle him being this stupid." Kes smiles goofily at her with unabashed adoration.

Cassian affords himself a chuckle. "Thank you," he says, already moving away; Shara drags Kes, stumbling, towards the bonfires.

Cassian searches the crowds again, a little more desperate because he knows now that Jyn's somewhere close. The sound of celebration is still roaring in his ears as he moves, sparks and ash spinning on updrafts. He knows she'll be at the fringes of the group, and he hopes, beyond anything, that she really is looking for him too.

He'd told told her that he trusted her, and he did-- he does; he knows she must be looking for him, but sometimes his own doubt feeds on itself, ouroboric, gorging until it's all he tastes, dry like ash in his mouth. She hadn't explained in great detail her reasons for leaving, but he'd known-- he knows-- that she'd felt something deep within herself that had told her to go. He's thought often about how Lyra Erso came to be in possession of a kyber crystal, presumably before the Republic fell, but voicing the natural conclusion he's drawn from that is too dangerous for him to do aloud, even when the Empire has been dealt a crippling blow, even if he were to say it to Jyn and her alone. He can only assume she's realized it as well, even if she's never confronted the implications.

He wanders, and that same crystal is still hot against his own skin. He hopes it means she's close.

He sees her, then, as he's thinking, across the crowd at the edge of the fire. His feet carry him forward even though his mind has stuttered to a stop, only seeing her, gold in the firelight.

She smiles the kind of smile that's only ever for him, that's only ever been for him. She's moving towards him too, and they crash together with all the gravity of water. 

He holds her tight to him, not close enough, never close enough, and buries his face in her neck. She's showered since the battles ended, somewhere, and he can smell the Alliance soap in her hair, hanging loose over her shoulders, just a little longer than it was when he last saw her. He can smell the fire in her hair, on her skin, undercut still by the sour bitterness of blaster discharge.

"I _missed _you," he breathes, voice breaking over the words.__

__She makes a noise against his shirt that sounds like a laugh and a hiccup and a sob and it's so achingly beautiful that it leaves a knot in his throat he can't swallow past. He feels like he's strangling, drowning on the feeling of her in his arms and he doesn't care._ _

__She leans back and smiles at him with a smile brighter than starlight. "I missed you too," she says. "Every day."_ _

__His breath catches a little in his throat and she hugs him again, standing on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. He holds her tight with one arm across her back, one hand gripping the back of her neck, fingertips digging into her shoulder. It's almost too tight, too much, but they're alive and they're together again, and it's all he's ever wanted, more than he's ever hoped for._ _

__"I'm sorry," she says. He unclasps the kyber crystal from his own neck and sets it around hers, pulling her hair free of it with gentle fingers. "I'm so sorry that I left. I was going to fight Draven, at first, because I thought we were all being separated because of us, because of you and me, but then... I can't explain it; I just knew I had to go, that there was somewhere I needed to be." She pauses then, the words she'd kept guarded for so many days she's lost count boiling out. "I'm sorry."_ _

__He just stares at her, looking up at him with shining eyes turned pale gold in the firelight, tears collecting on her lashes. He's rendered speechless by the emotion that's spreading roots in his chest, blooming petals in his throat, an emotion that belongs only, only ever, to her. So he kisses her instead, letting this emotion slay her guilt and crush it underfoot._ _

__Someone whistles-- Shara, if Jyn isn't mistaken-- and Jyn flips them off without looking. Cassian laughs, such a pure, honest sound, and she finds herself drowning in it with a smile. Sparks are dancing in the air, leaving little blue spots in her vision as they go. He traces the backs of his fingers down her face, his palm over her hair._ _

__"Will you stay?" he asks._ _

__"Forever," she says, and means it. "However long that is. _This _is where I need to be now." He knows she doesn't mean where they're standing, in this village in the forest, by the bonfire, but rather where they are and will be, regardless of place, so long as they're together.___ _

____His smile is something she wants to keep forever, to fold it up and keep it safe in its own little box where she's never kept anything._ _ _ _

____It won't be long before the horizon is waning into the reds and yellows of the early morning, and the day has already been long. They move to the very edge of the celebration; Cassian sits with his back against a tree and Jyn curls into his lap, settling against his chest with no space between them. She rests her forehead against his temple, just breathing him in. The bonfires still rush and roar like the sea, drowning them in the gold of the firelight._ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them. I tried to keep everything in a coherent timeline that would make sense if read in order, without making any of the stories (except these last two-- oops) dependent on the others. I really worked here to incorporate a lot of the thematic elements and imagery from the other pieces, and I'd love to hear what you think. Drop me a line here, or on tumblr! (My url is the same as my username here.)
> 
> Our final song selections are: How Did You Love by Shinedown, Empire by Shakira, and-- a bonus since this is the last one-- Angels in Everything by Blue October.


End file.
